Fair Trade 'Pebble' Baby Line Employs Women in Bangladesh

Instead of hitting up big box retailers for baby toys, new parents can explore independent businesses like Pebble, which gives parents the opportunity to buy natural, ethical and handmade alternatives.

Not only does each Pebble purchase benefit the baby receiving the earth-friendly item, but it also empowers its creators through the non-profit organization Hathay Bunano in India. The Pebble baby crochet is created by women in Bangladesh who are given fair income earning opportunities, which enables them to support themselves and their families.

The social enterprise was founded by UK-born Samantha Morshed, also the founder of Hathay Bunano.

"I have always loved crafts and the women of Bangladesh make beautiful things as part of their culture and heritage and so it wasn't such a great leap to teach some knitting and crochet skills and start to make toys that would likely have an eager customer base and could potentially bring sustainable and flexible employment to rural and disadvantaged women," Samantha says of a trip to India in 2004.

The company has grown rapidly since; social media stats show that the Pebble already has a solid fan base -- the Pebble Facebook account alone has close to 17,000 likes!